Element451 Introduces Gen AI Assistants for Higher Education

Higher education student engagement platform Element451 has introduced two new tools to its AI-powered system: Bolt AI Assistants and Bolt Discovery.

The two generative AI tools provide personalized help to students and staff, and fast, accurate, and timely information, the company said.

Developed specifically for higher education, Bolt AI Assistants are personalized "team members" that give "tailored responses to specific objectives" and are "trained to handle specific roles and tasks," the company said in a release. Currently available AI Assistants include:

  • Academic advisors;
  • Career coaches;
  • Financial aid advisors;
  • Admissions advisors;
  • Campus life advisors;
  • Support peers;
  • Program advisors;
  • Design assistants;
  • Copywriters;
  • Campaign strategists;
  • Events managers;
  • Marketing advisors; and
  • Data analysts.

The company continues to develop more AI Assistants for additional tasks.

Element451 CEO Ardis Kadiu said in the company's recent Generation AI podcast with co-host JC Bonilla that Element451's AI Assistants, unlike simple AI chatbots or agents, can access multiple skills and tools, reason, and hand off subtasks to other AI assistants, who then know what the previous ones have accomplished and can take it from there, much like a human team.

"We are building a team that works together and will do the hand-off seamlessly," Kadiu said, adding that this process is "like an agency approach, where different tasks are handed off to different team members" to augment what the human user is doing.

"Hopefully this will make it easier to support students and staff and help [one person] do the work of five," he said.

Bolt Discovery is an information hub designed to search "an institutional knowledge base in real time and offer up-to-date information on any topic," the company said.

The tool is a "dynamic and interactive information discovery tool" that can handle the challenges of the volume of information and its updates and contradictions, which can often slow down the enrollment process for students, the company added.

Bolt Discovery "delivers accurate, context-aware responses to natural language queries and guides visitors deeper into their topic of interest, ensuring a comprehensive understanding and intuitive experience," the company said, greatly reducing time and enhancing satisfaction.

About the Author

Kate Lucariello is a former newspaper editor, EAST Lab high school teacher and college English teacher.

Featured

  • Abstract energetic glowing lines with particles

    Meta Steps Up Enterprise AI Ambitions with Muse Spark Launch

    Meta has announced the launch of Muse Spark 1.1, a multimodal reasoning model designed for agentic AI, alongside a new Meta Model API that gives developers access to the model for the first time.

  • lock symbol with quantum bits in dynamic motion

    Microsoft Accelerates Focus on Quantum-Safe Security

    Microsoft is speeding up its quantum-safe security timeline, saying advances in quantum computing and new federal requirements have pushed post-quantum cryptography from a future planning issue into an immediate engineering priority.

  • Digital Screen with young woman using a virtual reality headset

    Montclair State U Partners with Dreamscape Learn on New VR Facility

    New Jersey's Montclair State University has announced the completion of a new virtual reality learning facility developed in partnership with Dreamscape Learn. The 2,450-square-foot lab space is inside the College of Communication and Media building and will serve students pursuing careers in digital media, virtual reality, and content creation.

  • interconnected nodes with currency symbols

    Gartner: Half of Gen AI Projects Could Exceed Budget by 2028

    Organizations may be underestimating the actual cost of generative AI as they move from experimentation to production, according to Gartner's "10 Best Practices for Optimizing Generative and Agentic AI Costs" report.